conversion of Coddington Highway in Middletown from a four lane roadway to a three lane (one lane in each direction and a center-turn lane) roadway with dedicated bike lanes.

This is a road I often use on my way to and from Newport after winding may way through what used to be Navy housing from Burma Rd. Coddington Highway has always felt a bit like a “highway”, not only by name, but also through it’s construction. Yet it boasted a 25 mph speed limit, which nobody ever headed.

In more troubling news, we read that RIDOT is making

improvements to rural roads by adding rumble strips

Obviously, this is of concern to cyclists because rural roads are a source of enjoyment and rumble strips do present a navigational difficulty for bicycle users, as they remove a significant amount of usable space from the shoulder, and present a hazard when needing to be crossed when leaving the shoulder to re-enter the roadway. We are in contact with RIDOT to determine where, if anywhere, they have been added and what the review process is for where they will be added.

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2 thoughts on - RIDOT Investing $10M to Make Roads Safer

carfreepvd

Jun 1, 2012 at 1:17 pm

Oh god, not rumble strips! Please do whatever you can to convince them that they are dangerous to cyclists. I've been on the Henderson Bridge a few times lately – and there are rumble strips in the bike lane! (along with broken glass, piles of sand, gravel, brake rotors, etc – seriously, do they ever sweep those lanes?) If a road engineer has never ridden a bike on a rumble strip, they can't know how dangerous they can be, they just think "rumble strips stop distracted (or sleepy) drivers from running off the road, so let's put them everywhere!"